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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26391955">the girl who moved mountains</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribblequote/pseuds/Scribblequote'>Scribblequote</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>BAMF Haruno Sakura, Doctor Haruno Sakura, Edo Period, First Shinobi War, Foundations: A Naruto Founders Zine, Founding of Konoha, Haruno Sakura is So Done, Haruno Sakura-centric, Jinchuriki - Freeform, Looking for a Beta, Not Canon Compliant, Original Character(s), Pre-Konoha Village, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, Time Travel, Uchiha Clan-centric, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Warring States Period (Naruto), Worldbuilding, kaguya clan centric, kaguya is a blight on society, original kaguya characters, the uchiha have a thing for strength</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:55:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,206</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26391955</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribblequote/pseuds/Scribblequote</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She arrived one day, allied to no clan, sworn to no leader, bested by no warrior. Or the one where Sakura finds herself adopted into the Uchiha clan (Izuna she just levelled a fucking mountain, we must take her) and lets them, bit by bit, teach her what it feels like to live and love once again</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama/Uzumaki Mito, Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Izuna</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>75</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Time and Dimension Travel Involving Medical Advancements</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time he knew of her existence was a day two weeks ago when the sky was calm and the sound of a battle was nowhere to be heard. In this one week of strained peace, a fourteen-year-old Madara had decided to take off on a walk suddenly. His mind ached with an emptiness that he could not tolerate and his body grew restless by the hour. These bouts of peace had his mind going two ways, he liked getting a taste of what it felt like to have the day structured to his wants where he could spend time with his hawks and visit the orphanage to help uncle Kaen with the children who couldn't stop lighting fabric on fire every time they sneezed, on the other hand every day spent like this was another day the Senju had the opportunity to strengthen their forces.</p>
<p>While walking away from his clan's compound, he frowned as his thoughts took a turn somewhere he did not want them to. In the last skirmish between the Senju and the Uchiha, Hashirama had once again persisted in his talk of rekindling their friendship throughout their fight. Madara would've been offended that his rival wasn't paying attention to him if he hadn't broken the boy's nose. Twice.</p>
<p>"Bumbling fool…"</p>
<p>His head snapped upwards when he felt the aftershock of a powerful wave of chakra from afar being swept through the forest he was walking in. The force of this chakra was strong enough to ruffle the trees around him and have his sharingan activate by itself through survival instincts. Madara climbed up the tree closest to him, hopping from one sturdy branch to the other, until he was at a vantage point. With his improved vision he looked above the tree tops to see if this had been the shock wave of a particularly strong jutsu. What he saw was most definitely not the aftermath of any type of jutsu that could be cast by a human.</p>
<p>"Mother of all chakra," he snarled, trying to make sense of it.</p>
<p>Far, far away in the distance but close enough for his eyes to make out, the sky tore in two and something fell out of it.</p>
<p>::</p>
<p>
  <em>'You wretched creature'</em>
</p>
<p>When Sakura wakes up, she still tastes the phantom tang of blood in her mouth and can still smell decomposing bodies and ozone. Her body feels heavy and disjointed, but mostly she feels wrong. There's something stuck to her forehead, two things actually, if the sluggish medical chakra circulating her body was right in its diagnosis. She's laying on grass and that has her pausing for a second, when was the last time she had seen grass? A year and a half ago, right? When she was ordered to take a break by going to the land of Tea and collecting Ashwagandha after she had collapsed two days in a row. She wills her right hand to move from where it rested on top of her heart to slide down and touch the grass. There was still dew on it. Sakura wanted to bury her face in it but her nose is probably still broken from when Ino sucker punched her in the face yesterday. She's still circulating chakra in a diagnostic manner when she freezes up and remembers.</p>
<p>
  <em>'You thought I'd let you get away with this?'</em>
</p>
<p>When Sakura wakes up its with curses to high heavens and a feeling of despair that weighs down on her and continues to compress her chest like the insignificant insect she is-</p>
<p>
  <em>'I will make you rue the day you were born girl.'</em>
</p>
<p>::</p>
<p>The first time he heard of her, he was left confused and intrigued.</p>
<p>He found his little brother hunched over a piece of parchment, hands stained with black ink and curses tumbling out of his mouth. His sharingan was on and as Madara sat across from him he noticed that the black pins in his eyes kept rotating, probably due to his brother's anger. The elder Uchiha decided to enquire and find out the source of his irritation.</p>
<p>"We need to redraw our maps," Izuna replied sourly. He glared at the piece of paper in front of him as though it had offended himself, his brother and every one of his ancestors, twice over.</p>
<p>"Why so?" asked Madara in genuine curiosity. "I was under the impression that they had been rectified months ago." He was referring to the valley created by a clash between himself and an average sized no name clan.</p>
<p>Izuna muttered something under his breath that Madara was sure was not meant for his ears before speaking louder. "Brother if you could refrain from deforming landscapes that would be rather amazing." Izuna was now tapping the inked bamboo brush in his hand on the table. Madara noted that his brother's fingers were still losing the baby fat he used to have. It relived Madara to know that he was being pushed into more bureaucratic work instead of to the battlefield. His father may have been a stern man who craved victory, but he also felt loss like it was a sword driven into his gut. Raising the age for children to enter the Uchiha forces had been a decision that the majority of the clan had agreed to almost instantly.</p>
<p>Coming back to himself, Madara shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to tilt back a bit with his hands comfortably steadying him by his side on the floor. As he moved, the few bits of oversized armor he wore around him made grating noises that he ignored.</p>
<p>"Honestly, " Izuna continued. "You and that Senju are just as bad. Look." Izuna pulled up the paper so it was eye level to his brother and pointed at a distinct place on the map he was recreating. "Do you know what this used to be?"</p>
<p>Madara narrowed his eyes at where the younger Uchiha pointed. "A patch of farmland," he guessed helplessly if only to calm his brother. It looked like a crate so his guess should be along the lines of a right answer.</p>
<p>"It was a whole lake," thundered Izuna. "Is this a competition between you two?"</p>
<p>"Izuna relax," Madara assured him "we are both crazy. It isn't a competition."</p>
<p>Izuna snorted. "Anyways, for once this wasn't your nor his doing."</p>
<p>"You sure?"</p>
<p>Izuna leveled him with an unimpressed stare. "Last time I checked you did not possess glowing green eyes and rose-tinted hair."</p>
<p>::</p>
<p><em>'To think that my worshippers were reduced to this'</em>, the voice in her head spits out.</p>
<p>"Please," they begged, body humbled and foreheads touching the ground. "Help us." They're part of the Kaguya clan, and their numbers are abysmal. They have twenty in their ranks from what the Chieftan had just told her, two of whom have been abducted.</p>
<p>Sakura has had her fair share of playing God. She's battled death himself. Cursed him countless of times when he tried to carry away the souls of her patients. Aided him as she cut through her enemies. So, while it had been Naruto and Sasuke who had been credited with every small victory they managed over the Rabbit Goddess, Sakura can only roll her eyes at this because she's been locking horns with the God of Death himself since the tender age of thirteen.</p>
<p>And it was these encounters with this damned and feared being that had her nodding her head at the audience in front of her. She was cautious to start healing again, the idea that she could be a Sakura Haruno who could do anything she chose to was liberating, but saving someone from the clutches of death itself and saving someone from death's accomplices were two separate things. While she is a changed woman, she is still a shinobi first and foremost and cannot deny her calling.</p>
<p>"North East, two hours walk from this town you said?" she asks and the thing is while she is well acquainted with the monsters of this world, she is still human so when the people of this small, modest village ask her for help she uses her knowledge in chakra and forces her pulse to slow down, meddles with her voice box to stay strong and stops outbreaks of sweat.</p>
<p>"Yes, yes," the man, presumably their leader, has all but disregarded every ounce of pride and self-respect as he bows deeply to continue to plead his case. "Over a valley and two thinned out forests," he further supplies. There are other white-haired men behind him with their heads ducked and hands resting on their leader's shoulder as a sign of silent support.</p>
<p>When she is flung into the chaos of a miniature battle ground, Sakura thinks that it's the first time she's ever felt so alive in her life because for the first time there is no <em>'</em><em>sakura-chan</em><em> look out'</em>, <em>'</em><em>sakura-chan</em><em> stay back'</em>,<em> '</em><em>sakura</em><em> I've got you</em>', it's just her and the enemy with no need to heal and by the gods does it feel like heaven to meet your enemy head on without holding back.</p>
<p>::</p>
<p>The Kaguya believe that she's the direct descendant of their moon goddess and Sakura wants to correct them. She brings back the severed heads of the men who had abducted two of their children and informs them that everyone else who had showed up to the battle was dead. In return they make her one of them.</p>
<p>Sakura was sitting on floor that was made by smoothing down the stone that was imbedded into the ground all around the piece of land the Kaguya had decided to live on. Its mountainous terrain was perfect for strengthening their kekkei genkai. She had already learned from Hone, a woman who had taken on the self-appointed task of being Sakuras guardian, that the clan broke their bones off hard surfaces to that when their bodies mended their bones, they grew back stronger. It was an interesting process, especially when Hone let her know that they had the same pain tolerance as any normal human. It had been two days since she had last seen her, and Sakura knew that the woman should definitely not be out of bed and standing outside of her door after that unfortunate accident.</p>
<p>"Our practices seem barbaric to others so we've been hunted down for centuries, until we decided to leave the peaceful practice of Ninshu and become shinobi." Her voice is coarse, having slipped on a patch of wet rock a day ago, she had landed directly onto a jutting piece on the mountain she had been climbing with a cousin and had crushed her voice box and broken one side of her collar bone. "Now we sell our skills as mercenaries."</p>
<p>Sakura stretched out languidly from her previous position that she meditated in to look up at the twenty something year old woman. "Are you sure you're allowed to be up and about right now? Could've sworn you'd snapped your neck the other day off."</p>
<p>The woman let out a deep rich laugh. "The princess has a sense of humor it seems." Her eyes were the color of deep red, in this dimly lit room they managed to look almost brown. "But I thought you wanted to know more about our history? Or have you grown tired of listening to stories of your Mother?"</p>
<p>Sakura sighed, half in pleasure as her stretched out joints clicked and half in suffering because none of them were taking no for an answer. "I told you I'm human and that your mother was sealed into me."</p>
<p>Hone had a smile on her face as she looked down at Sakura's small and frail form. "To think that you hold our goddess inside of you." She had a dreamy expression on her face as she folded her dress under her knees to sit down comfortably without having the stone beneath them dig into her skin. "You might have been born from a mortal's body, but you hold our Mother inside of you, and it is such an inexplicable honor to be able to sit so close to her." Her gaze was intense as she held Sakura's stare.</p>
<p>There were light purple markings on her face, a thick dot between her eyebrows, two short lines under each eye and a dot on her chin. "It doesn't bother you that your father took one look at a twelve-year-old stranger and elevated her status to one higher than his own daughter, the rightful heir?" Sakura licked her lips as she tested the water. She would be able to follow the woman's pulse throw the skin on skin contact that they were holding. Hone didn't notice Sakura's medical chakra entering her system as she continued to gently stroke the short silver horns that had sprouted from either side of her hairline.</p>
<p>"Your status was elevated to that of which has made you higher than anyone in this clan, my father's position included". There was a look of utter confusion on Hone face and she paused for a second, trying to find what were probably reassuring words in Sakura's opinion. "It makes me happy to finally see the goddess my ancestors have worshipped. Our people had begun to give up in the last century as those around us made it a sport to hunt us down. With you here, our clan will grow and prosper."</p>
<p>"But I am a child. You'd bow to a child?" More, Sakura needed to find the lie, the anger, the pride. There is no way that these people weren't going to try and rip Kaguya out of her body in the middle of the night as she slept, believing that she really was one of them.</p>
<p>"But are you really a decade and a bit?" There was mirth in her eyes and she ran her long spider fingers down the side of Sakura's face, her dark brown talons leaving small red marks in their wake. "If you hold the Mother in you, tell me how many lives have you lived so far?"</p>
<p>Sakura wasn't going to deign her with a reply, not when she was disappointed in finding nothing but the truth in her words. So, they really were devoted to her. She wanted to keep going, she wanted to do something petty and tell them that their mother saw them as a laughable imitation of herself, that she only loved Zetsu. Sakura wanted to see them crack a little and hate her instead of treating her like she was someone important to them.</p>
<p>"I am not your goddess, you do realize that? And I'll never be her. And I'm not kind and all knowing", she was going to keep going, "and I can't protect you from men that are stronger and bigger than me. And-"</p>
<p>"We're not asking you to smother us. She was playing with Sakura's hair now, twisting it between her thumb and forefinger as she inspected the white hairs that mingled with the pink.</p>
<p>"Then what do you want from me?" She tried not to sound desperate. It was a new feeling, being wanted and acknowledged. It took her three years into a fucking world-wide scale war to get the respect of the med nin she was put in charge of, it was hard to feel like she had the right to demand respect when she went through riddled with low self-esteem issues and bouts of self-loathing.</p>
<p>"Nothing material. But it would be nice to have you around with us. You hold a deity inside of you, you do not need protection from us nor anything that you couldn't go and obtain it yourself. But it seems to me like you have no one to go to. So maybe we can offer you a home?"</p>
<p>A home. Sakura thinks of Konoha, Ino who liked to drop in to her tents and have her solve arbitrary codes from the intelligence division because she was too tired herself, Tsunade who never underestimated her when giving her a job, her parents who have tried their best to support a way of life they never wanted for her, nameless patients that she had gone through for years during the war. She made a makeshift home out of thank you trinkets and blue eyes that liked to stain her neck with lipstick marks for laughs and hair ruffles from men and women she studied under and sparse letters sent to her parents. Theoretically she could make a home for herself here instead of getting used to the life of a hermit as she had previously resigned herself too.</p>
<p>She sighs and knows that the only reason she has found herself weak to people's pleas is because of Naruto, the absolute demon. "Put your head on my lap." Her legs are still crossed from her earlier meditation but her expertise in medical chakra has allowed her to avoid letting her legs go numb.</p>
<p>Hone is clearly surprised but does so without questioning her. There's a lot of shuffling as she moves around the layers of her dress and pulls her hair free out of her bun to so she could comfortably settle her head onto Sakura's bony legs. Once her patient is ready Sakura raises her hands on either side of Hone's head and allows them to glow a greenish color. There is no fear in the older woman's eyes as she anticipates the hands coming closer and closer to her skin and Sakura worries that their absolute belief in her could turn out to be their downfall. "I'll stay here and make a home for myself, but I'll work for it."</p>
<p>Hones eyes, that had previously closed in blissful pleasure from the sensation of warm chakra entering her system, suddenly had her eyes wide open in a scandalous look. "How could you say that! Your presence itself in more than we could ever pay you for-"</p>
<p>Sakura flicked her forehead in an attempt to quiet her. "You worship what's inside of me, not myself. Let me make myself useful by becoming the clan's healer and occasionally healing outsiders for a sum of money or produce. I think that's a fair trade."</p>
<p>Hone was acting like a child and continued opposing her for the next half hour until Sakura was done with a diagnostic of her chakra system and bone kekkai genkkai and promptly kicked her out of the house. ("You're a menace," Sakura hissed. "And you're about to be kicked in the face for looking a gift horse in the mouth," was Hone's upset reply as she was physically pushed out of the house.)</p>
<p>She's left alone finally and after a small metal victory dance she realizes that having Hone's presences had blocked out the voice in her head that had now come back in full force to taunt her. 'To think that my servants will perish in two centuries, how laughable.' The small spikes of adrenaline from earlier, the mirth that came with having a friendly banter slowly dissipated in the wake of the rabbit goddesses shrill voice.</p>
<p>
  <em>'I'll drive you mad until you're left with no choice but to kill yourself.'</em>
</p>
<p>"Oh, get lost," Sakura mumbled. "If Naruto was able to listen to the Kyubi for twenty something years without losing his mind, I can do the same with you, you old bat." Screaming ensues and Sakura presses her hands into her head in an effort to alleviate the pain that blooms behind her forehead.</p>
<p>And because Sakura's filter between her mouth and brain had eroded after years spent in the company of the men of team seven, she continued to talk. "Honestly fuck you dude. I'm gonna find an Uzumaki and they're gonna lock you up proper." The screaming took up another debacle and Sakura collapsed onto her knees from the pain, continuing to dig her finger into her scalp.</p>
<p>::</p>
<p>Thank whatever gods exist out there, that aren't self-made batshit crazy deities like Kaguya, that she has to sleep from time to time to regain energy. Karin's newfound fluency in fuinjutsu had really helped in designing a steal strong enough to contain a chakric entity like Kaguya. One of the ideas that Karin had suggested was an adjustment to have her yin and yang releases separated. And while that meant that they had to put a permanent stopper seal so Sakura could never dip into Kaguya's reserves like Naruto did with his tailed beast, an unforeseen result had appeared. Without both of her chakric parts working in tandem, Kaguya's stamina and energy depleted quickly and so her spirit had to rest often. Blessings came in all forms and Sakura wished that she was back in her own timeline, if only to kiss Karin.</p>
<p>For now, she had work to do, she had three hours if it was a nap, seven hours if she was asleep. Not knowing which one the goddess had chosen, Sakura got to work immediately. There were two pieces of washi paper on her desk, each was about thirty centimeters in length and fifteen in width. Next to the paper was a small pot of what is more than likely soot ink. They're both products that are very hard to come by out in this no man's land that the Kaguya took to residing in and from Sakura's abstract knowledge of history she knows that only affluent places like the capital sold luxury goods like these. But Sakura needed an entire notebook soon. Several actually. She needed to start figuring out whatever this disease the majority of the Kaguya seemed to have as well as start forming books on all of the anatomical and medicinal information she had. There was so much to do that she could feel herself starting to panic a little. She paused to take several deep breaths.</p>
<p>"My name is Sakura Haruno. I am the disciple of the Fifth. I am a field medic." She felt Kaguya snore in her slumber and in turn felt her resolve harden. "I am the jinchuriki of the Rabbit Goddess." Her knuckles turned a ghastly white color as she gripped the edges of the table in front of her. It was a piece of furniture typical to this era, a table that was raised about forty centimeters from the ground and required a person to sit in the seiza position to write on it. It was going to be a nightmare, adapting to an entirely different way of life as she tried to normalize the culture, food, slang, gender roles, political state and more. At least for now she was in a safe environment and could start slowly.</p>
<p>Picking up one of the sheets, Sakura titled it as a to do list. She dipped the tip of the brush into the small blue pot and slowly started to write, mindful of the fact that her hand-eye coordination was terrible thanks to the sudden de-aging she had experienced. Her writing was messy, even messier than her usual doctors writing but she still pushed through it, knowing that she didn't have the luxury of just starting anew on a different piece of paper.</p>
<p>1) study the kaguya disease</p>
<p>2) find out more about political climate</p>
<p>3) start selling my healer skills</p>
<p>4) train body</p>
<p>5) obtain writing utensils</p>
<p>6) experiment with fuinjutsu to age forward.</p>
<p>That was it for now, she would add on more as time went by. While the list was made with no order of what was to be prioritized, the only thing she could sit down and cross off her list in a matter of a week or so is studying whatever ailed this clan and coming up with a cure. She picked up the paper she had written on by the corner and moved it to the far end of the table to let it dry. Setting her eyes on the last available piece of paper Sakura began to ever so slowly sketch a rough picture of the human body and its chakric system. Once she was done with that Sakura planned on sketching out the skeletal system and then snaring the first member of the clan she laid her eyes on outside of her house to question them about the workings of their bloodline limit. The entire process was going to be an arduous one but Sakura had always loved research and theory work more than any type of field work. This no name girl in a timeline that was completely alien to her fully intended to revolutionize the health care system, starting with this clan.</p>
<p>
  <em>'You're such a pest. I'm going to enjoy feasting on your heart.'</em>
</p>
<p>Fuck. She'll have to make time to shut this woman up too.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. chapter two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>AN: Holy shit did that first chapter blow up. I can't thank each and every one of you who reviewed enough. From the reviews, I've realised that the first chapter is indeed a little too rough, I'll go back and redo it sometime soon. I hope this one reads better x.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The clan is surprisingly...tame? There's none of the barbarity she expected from a clan that worshipped the chakra filled mistake that was inside of her. As a clan that others had made a sport out of hunting down to </span>
  <span>extinction,</span>
  <span> she expected resentment and revenge filled vows </span>
  <span>spew</span>
  <span> left and right, this train of thought had her </span>
  <span>realising</span>
  <span> that she had definitely spent too much time around Sasuke and his life philosophies. They're a tired bunch, sure, with a mountain's worth and a half of unresolved trauma and most definitely what Sakura suspects is a case of mommy issues. Sasuke could learn a thing or two from them. Sasuke would fit nicely into this group of misfits. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Ignoring the fact that Sakura could already feel herself getting attached to them, she pinched her arm to get back into focus. She knows about the part of her that has always reminded Tsunade too much of Orochimaru, the part that salivated at the idea of new research material. She also knows that she was spoiled, Tsunade had always fed her insatiable thirst for cracking down test subjects and getting to the final mark where she would be able to send her scientific journals for peer review to the capital. But for all of her mentor's sweet gestures, Sakura knew that those actions were of a wish fulfilment type, Tsunade was trying to right her past wrongs by indulging in her student's curiosity. That had Sakura pausing and taking a figurative step back because if she looked at the bigger picture, shinobi all round her seemed steeped in unresolved trauma. Maybe she should go on with her plans of establishing a clinic that dealt with mental trauma. The idea of therapy and psychiatry existed in the capital, but it was a medical luxury only the nobles could afford.  </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Therapy, but tailor it for shinobi and the child soldiers. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>That thought had Sakura's mood plummet. She began washing the dishes with vigor as she let her thoughts run wild. The medical system back in her time was dogy at best, but she knew that it was </span>
  <span>nonexistent</span>
  <span> here. Well except at the </span>
  <span>Daiymou</span>
  <span> courts perhaps. She sighed as she added in powder that was the Kaguya's makeshift soap into the basin and mixed it around, letting the warm water suds up. She still wasn’t sure what era she was stuck in, so that had to be rectified soon. Were women still married off like brood mares? Has anyone established a hidden village-? </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>The soapy plate in her hand slipped between child fingers and fell into the basin, causing some water to overflow and dampen her knees. Was Konoha born yet? If it was, then she better </span>
  <span>drag</span>
  <span> this rag tag family that she'd managed to accumulate and migrate herself into the village. But if </span>
  <span>Konoha</span>
  <span> had yet to be formed then the Senju and Uchiha would still be in the </span>
  <span>midst</span>
  <span> of their stupid war. She buried her head into her hands, the silvery horns on each side of her head muffled her effort to grab onto her hair and pull. Fucking men. She took deep, measured breaths in order to calm herself down. It was unfair of her to group all of the opposite gender like that seeing as her opinion of men had been tainted by all five members of team seven. She knew better than to let her temperamental self say things like that. Either way now she had more things to add onto her to do list.  </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>A piercing scream at the thought of the Konoha's founders had Sakura clutching her ears while getting soapy water into her eyes.  </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh my god go back to sleep, stupid." It was sad to believe that all time spent immersing herself in academia and people's internal organs had been for </span>
  <span>naught</span>
  <span> since team seven's influence still managed to reduce her vocabulary to that of a cranky old civilian fisherman. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>'I'll destroy them. I'll destroy every single one of you.' Mourning the slow disintegration of whatever sanity, she had to begin with, Sakura fished out the last bamboo cup and turned it upside down on the ground. She picked up the sloshing basin and applied her chakra enhanced strength so she could carry it easily. Five steps </span>
  <span>were</span>
  <span> all it took to get to the door of the house, except that no one in the clan closed their doors during the day, preferring to put down a sheet of cloth pinned at the top of the door frame for a bit of privacy. The wind pushed the cloth into the house a bit and Sakura used the opening to slip her small body out, following the basin. Movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention but she ignored it in favor of walking towards the closest cliff so she could dump the impure water off the side of it. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Princess!" Sakura's heart melted as she hurried to put down the basin. In a flourish of layered </span>
  <span>skirts,</span>
  <span> she turned around and embraced the ball of sunshine running at her. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Hi there baby. How are you?" She cooed at the little girl, ignoring Kaguya who thundered something along the lines of <em>'rip her throat out with your teeth.'</em></span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>The toddler huffed in anger and she unattached her chubby arms from around Sakura's neck. " 'm not baby. I'm big!" Sakura laughed out loud and kept her hold under the girl's backside and lower back firm. The little girl's legs pressed against Sakura's stomach as she peered into bright green eyes and relaxed into the makeshift seat Sakura had her in. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Seishin is my baby." The girl wrinkled her nose and pushed away at Sakura's face in annoyance. It didn’t stop Sakura from laughing even harder. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>A pregnant woman came running into the scene of Seishin pulling at one of Sakura's horns in revenge and Sakura herself attempting to grab onto the younger girl's short hair. The mother stood on sore feet and tried to gulp down air. "Young lady...you are in so much...trouble."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura's eyes shone in </span>
  <span>amusement</span>
  <span> when Seishin froze in fear, one of the tear shaped markings that had been painted on her face below each tear duct was smudged from her scuffle. The girl grabbed each of Sakura's horns in her tiny hands and directed Sakura's face from her mother's form to her face. Her voice was earnest as she said, "I </span>
  <span>gotta</span>
  <span> zoom, ok." </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura looked deep into dark green eyes and nodded solemnly, "ok." She lowered Seishin and watched her hobble away as quickly as she could. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"</span>
  <span>Princes,</span>
  <span> how could you?" The mother looked positively betrayed and Sakura felt a tinge of shame at being reprimanded because the woman was clearly struggling in her pregnant state.  </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>She ruffled her hair in embarrassment, the sleeve of her dress getting caught on one of her horns. "Ah... I'm sorry, I'll get her once I pour this over."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>The mother waved her off as she straightened up, no longer was she winded up. "I'll threaten Shizen into catching her so don’t worry about it." Turning around the lady walked back to where she came from, her right hand pressing into her lower back and her left hand holding up her stomach. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>With a sigh, Sakura picked up the basin with both hands and continued on her journey to the closest cliff edge which she knew to be behind the cluster of trees she was heading towards. She arrived and said a prayer to the sky whale deities before dunking the warm liquid off the edge. The Haruno ancestry came from Kiri and even though she was raised in Konoha, her parents still instilled Kiri's pagan religion into her. While Sakura had always been too rational and scientific to believe everything that was taught to her, she worshiped the Kiri guardians for a sense of hope, and believed in the god of death from experience (of course the only minor god that could go and fuck themselves for all she cared was Kaguya but Sakura liked to </span>
  <span>believe</span>
  <span> that her deeply rooted hatred for the being was for a good enough reason). Two quips at Kaguya, a screaming session from the goddess and a traumatized squirrel later, Sakura was back in the village, the basin pushed against her hip firmly.  </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>The presence that she had felt lurking around earlier on was still in </span>
  <span>its</span>
  <span> previous spot so Sakura decided to </span>
  <span>utilise</span>
  <span> this moment to her advantage, as well as maybe abuse her power. Just a little. Fueling the soles and heels of her feet with the proper amount of chakra she </span>
  <span>flash</span>
  <span> stepped into the lurker's path and glared up at him, silently fuming at the reduction of her height. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Are you good?" Her voice was that of a pubescent girl and wow she really hated this tiny shell she'd been reduced too. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>The man in front of her looked taken back, his thin eyebrows were raised and blood dripped from where a bone was sticking out from his palm, an </span>
  <span>instinctual reaction</span>
  <span> to being surprised. He cleared his throat before saying, "come again?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura huffed in irritation and crossed her arms. "Do you make it a habit to stalk little girls? Are you a pervert?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>A look of amusement crossed his face as he looked down at the face she made. He relaxed against the wall of the </span>
  <span>stone-built</span>
  <span> house she had cornered him against. Wet sounds to her right let her know that the bone had retracted, leaving behind an open wound that she knew would close up in fifteen minutes. "I make it a habit to look after my family. You're not exactly a Kaguya."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm Sakura."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"</span>
  <span>Kotsuzui</span>
  <span>. And </span>
  <span>yeah,</span>
  <span> I know about you, Princess."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura squinted at him some more and considered the merits of wiping away the amused look with a chakra laced punch to the gut. She sighed the second the thought fully registered with her. Team seven's influence was too strong if her subconscious was beginning to feel the need to deal physical damage to every little problem she encountered. Sakura took a long look at him and said, "you're a special </span>
  <span>snowflake,</span>
  <span> aren't you?" His head is shaved and he wears none of the tattoos nor face paints the rest of his clan has taken to wearing in honor of their goddess. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>He chuckled and shrugged his </span>
  <span>shoulders and</span>
  <span> Sakura's fingers itched to heal the wound that still had blood dripping out of it. "And you're definitely not a child."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Huh?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Thought we were stating the obvious?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura grabs his uninjured hand with enough chakra to have him stumbling after her. As she makes her way </span>
  <span>home,</span>
  <span> she sends medical chakra through the skin she's touching and feels the satisfying sensation of skin knitting itself together at an accelerated speed. The stranger had his hand up to his face and was inspecting her handiwork. Medical chakra always left behind slightly discolored skin in its wake, a failure in the technique according to Tsunade. Someone's future breakthrough according to </span>
  <span>Shizune</span>
  <span>. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Letting go of his hand, Sakura walked around him and pushed him into her house, disregarding the basin in one of the four corners of her home. He turned to face her once she let go of him. "I bet you make flowers blossom behind you when you walk barefoot on grass." </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura gave him a hard stare. "Have you been drinking the milk of poppy lately?" She didn’t wait for an answer and went to get the page with the sketch of a typical Kaguya's anatomy. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"We don’t drink poppy, we smoke it," was his automated defensive response to the accusation before he caught himself. "That doesn’t answer my question. What else can you do?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>She sat herself by the table, dry brush in one hand while the other patted the ground beside her in an invitation to the K. "You never asked that to begin with. Now sit."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Are you going to grow flowers from my ears?" His posture was loose but he eyed her with a healthy dose of distrust and it took a second for Sakura to realise that her temper in this situation wasn't justified. She had become so accustomed to having the clan members throw themselves at her feet that now she was left at a loss having to deal with one that acted with more cation</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeah you're definitely different." She tapped the brush on the side of her thigh and used her free hand to grab a </span>
  <span>fistful</span>
  <span> of his hollowed pant and pulled at it gently. "Also sit down you're giving me a headache from looking up at you." Which was a lie, Kaguya was the one destroying her brain.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>He sat down with much reluctance, crossing his legs as he looked her in the eyes. She beckoned for his hands and after an internal deliberation he put his larger callused hands into her small ones. The size difference agitated her, but then she realised that she had to get out of the mentality of punching every problem she came across.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Grabbing his hands firmly so he wouldn't be able to jump across half of the room once she entered her diagnostic chakra, she began the procedure. He hummed as the warm sensation entered through his hands and spread throughout his body slowly.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"No flowers?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Shut up."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>He sighed dramatically and Sakura debated the merits of slamming her forehead into his to knock him unconscious so she could experiment on him without the posing issue of an annoying distraction. "You're definitely mixed blood aren't you." She let go of his hands to pick up the brush and dip it into ink.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>He chuckled and Sakura pointedly ignored him, mentally slapping herself for continuing the conversation. "I'll have you know that I'm part of the main branch family. A spare heir if you will."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>The brush floated above the sheet of paper as Sakura's mind went blank. "There is absolutely no way you're related to Hone."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Clearly you don't know what it's like to have siblings. That witch is my big sister."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"What?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Also fuck the Rabbit Goddess."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura took a long look at his silly grin and the amusement that threatened to burst forth and swallow her whole. "But this clan is filled with...unresolved mommy issues… What the hell?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh yes, definitely." He was nodding his head sagely. "You've just dipped your toes into this ocean of a nightmare."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"And you?" She pressed on. "How come you don't believe in Kaguya?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>He raised an eyebrow in confusion and tilted his head. "I do believe in the goddess our clan was named after. I can feel her right here," he lifted his hand and stopped inches from her collar bone to point at that area. "It was simply hard to believe in her existence when my people were being massacred for a sport and she never did anything to help her loyal worshipers."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>She tried to catch onto his train of thought. "You believed in her existence...But not in her as a benevolent deity?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeah. That sounds about right." He was reclined back on the palms of his hands as he stared out at the cloth in the entrance, billowing from the wind. Something struck his mind because his expression went from </span>
  <span>sober</span>
  <span> to cat like curiosity in the space of a second. Sakura didn't like that.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"</span>
  <span>So,</span>
  <span> tell me. Can you hear her? Does she talk to you?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura snorted. "You want me to reaffirm her existence to you." She'd long since abandoned her writing set and notes in favour of this distraction in front of her.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"I can sense her, sure," he pressed on, "but what if you'd simply taken a bite from the shinju tree? Or brushed paths with the goddess and her presence still lingered on you?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura looked at him with as much incredulity as she could muster. "Both of those accusations hold so many holes in them. The shinju tree gives birth to a fruit every aeon. Which hasn't passed yet since Kaguya took a bite. And I don't even know where the fuck to start with that presence theory you have."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>He looked forlorn as he stuck his elbow out to place it on the table and balance his chin on his open palm. "A man can hope."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"You really dislike </span>
  <span>her,</span>
  <span> don't you?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded his head much to her surprise. "It's angering to see my people put up with their suffering as they continue believing that with their worship, they'll be called upon her for the unsealing."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>She visibly blanched. "The what now?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"The goddess's unsealing? We're supposed to feel a call someday that would allow us to come to the land of her sealed husk and help her out."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Fear clutched her heart, </span>
  <span>stripping</span>
  <span> away her ability to breath, and swept her body from top to bottom. Would they really do that? Would they try to unseal Kaguya from within her if she called out for them? They would be damning themselves if they did that. Her killing sprees discriminated against no one, the clan needed to understand that their goddess was deranged from whatever else other than chakra had been in the fruit she ate. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura grabbed onto his hand as a terrible, terrible idea crossed her mind. "Hey. Hey, wanna listen to what your goddess likes to tell me?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>His eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously, he seemed all too ready to experience talking to the deity. Even if he did have a low opinion on said deity. Sakura lifted his right hand and reshuffled the top layers of her dress around. She managed to free some bare skin above her chest but below her neck. Letting the tips of his fingers touch her skin, Sakura </span>
  <span>channeled</span>
  <span> a bit of her chakra and pulled at </span>
  <span>Kotsuzui's</span>
  <span> chakra into the vortex part of the seal.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>While their physical bodies were slumped forward and motionless, a bit of their yin chakra had been transferred into the landscape that contained the wisps of Kaguya's spiritual manifestation. The space was dimly lit with balls of blue chakra lighting up the area they floated in. There was no need to breathe in this form of theirs. They also lacked any sense of taste or smell while trapped in this seal. The only senses that </span>
  <span>Kotsuzui</span>
  <span> struggled to figure the space out was his sense of sight and sound. Sakura let him flop around as he tried to stay upright in his state. She gave it another minute before getting a </span>
  <span>fistful</span>
  <span> of his shirt in her hand and straightening him up.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"What is this?" </span>
  <span>Kotsuzui</span>
  <span> whispered as though anything higher would shatter their </span>
  <span>anti-gravity</span>
  <span> movements.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Your goddess' lair."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>From the depth of the abyss ahead of them a scream hurled them backwards from the power of its shockwave. The two bodies collided and their spirits intermingled, mixing the both of them into a single mass of limbs and unmixable chakra. Sakura was the first one to get her bearings together and float away from Kotsuzui so that their spiritual manifestations could fix itself. The man huffed and floated helpless and Sakura caught a fearful expression on his face.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <em>'You dare imprison me not once, but twice.' </em>
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>The abyss shook with the force of her furry filled voice. The chakric lights flickered and Kotsuzui braced himself in a fighting stance. Sakura's shoulders drooped down as she readied herself for the brain splitting lecture.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <em>'You insolent wench.' </em>
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>When the Rabbit Goddess appeared Kotsuzui dropped to his knees before the woman's oppressing presence. Sakura knew she bore down even harder on the man once she had realised that he was easy picking.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>'Company.' Her face was twisted in a smear. 'Zetsu's failed attempt at my revival.'</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura looked down at </span>
  <span>Kotsuzui</span>
  <span> who had frozen in his position and she found that she could not fault him. Years of </span>
  <span>guerilla</span>
  <span> warfare attacks on Kaguya had made her immune to fear only because her hatred burned the brightest in her presence.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"M-my lady…" Kotsuzui shook in his place but managed to push out the words, "the clan has awaited your calling-"</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Her presence bore down even harder to the degree that even Sakura was finding it hard to breath. <em>'Pitiful!'</em> she spat </span>
  <span>out;</span>
  <span> her expression crazed.<em> 'To think that my progeny produced the likes of you.'</em></span>
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>This Kaguya was different to the poise one she'd faced off in battles. She was filled with so much undiluted hatred that it tainted her every word and reduced her to something lesser in Sakura's eyes. At one time Sakura could see Shikamaru struggle to keep up with the tactician in her. The woman who had spent centuries planning her return and the havoc she would bring as her revenge. But this woman was a sad shell of her former glorious self. The hair on her head was missing in patches that she had torn off. One of her horns had been broken off and was still growing back. Long red scratch marks dotted the pale skin that could be seen from under the tattered and ripped kimono she wore.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span><em>'I will kill off every last breathing creature I lay my eyes upon. Punishment is all you will know!'</em> Tears slid down her face as she continued to scream. </span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Feeling that this was enough, Sakura pulled them back through the inverted part of the seal. Back in the plane of the living, Sakura removed Kotsuzui's hand from her skin and set it gently onto his lap.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"She's suffering." His voice caught in his throat. Sakura looked away from his </span>
  <span>tear-stricken</span>
  <span> face in an attempt to give him some privacy.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"She's not perfectly sane. If I let your clan unseal </span>
  <span>her,</span>
  <span> she'll kill us all, I need you to understand." She caught him rubbing at his eyes roughly.</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeah you're right. Goddess crazy, no unsealing ceremony."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura let out a huff of breath as she massaged her head, trying to hear him over the sound of Kaguya's sobs. "Thank you."</span>
  
</p><p>
  
  
</p><p>
  <span>::. </span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Kotsuzui</span>
  <span> was surprisingly good company. He was very laid back but that was partly to do with his lazy </span>
  <span>demeanor</span>
  <span> and partly to hide the fact that he felt it his duty to carry the clan on his shoulders. Sakura could only imagine how much the visit to Kaguya had affected him. It must have been a slap to the face to find out the god his people have endured being lit on piers for was in reality deranged and a danger to them. Sitting beside him while he lay down on one of the few grassy patches that littered the mountainside, Sakura could only commend his bravery and his effort to help out his people.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>A </span>
  <span>little way</span>
  <span> from them, a teenage boy around her age worked on the field with his father. The various grass patches had been converted to either sun patches for the kids to play on or soil patches for the members to plant their produce on. </span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura rubbed viciously at her forehead as a particularly </span>
  <span>high-pitched</span>
  <span> scream made her left eye throb. She sensed </span>
  <span>Kotsuzui</span>
  <span> moving around and looked up at her.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"Say… you don't actually walk around listening to her screaming all day?" He was still shaken and had become much quieter that even Hone had indulged her in her worries about her younger brother's slight change in </span>
  <span>behavior</span>
  <span>. He was a little bit more subdued in his actions, and a little less careless in his speech. </span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"I absolutely do."</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"Wow. You're going to lose your mind at this rate." He reclined back onto the grass and fiddled with the strands absentmindedly.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook her head, "I'm used to talking psyches," referring to what her perfect chakra control had created in her mind when she was still in the academy. She paused, </span>
  <span>it</span>
  <span> felt like a lifetime ago.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>A small chuckle to her left. "That doesn't sound...safe?"</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"I deal with it." To pass time she dropped her hand on his forehead and started a scan on his chakra system. She took to watching the father and son duo while she made sure that his body was in working condition. Well as much as one's body could be fine with a disease slowly eating away at its hosts bone marrow.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She watched on as both father and son let their ulna grow out and rip through the skin on their palms. </span>
  <span>Next,</span>
  <span> they picked up aged but sharpened kunai that glinted in the morning sun and started shaving off the bone onto the bucket below them. Knowing the incredible amounts of pain man undergoes when their bare bones are touched, Sakura could only sit back and watch them. She made a mental note to have them teach her whatever technique or drug they consumed that tempered down the pain to a manageable degree. Maybe she could implement the same techniques, it would help her against the chronic migraines she suffered. At this stage she was well aware that Kaguya took great pride in unravelling the few strings that kept her mind sane and her speech coherent.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy stopped first, the pain clearly too much for him. The bone was retracted and Sakura watched him pick up his bucket and start sprinkling his bone dust onto the soil. Sakura's chakra </span>
  <span>jolted</span>
  <span> in surprise, mimicking her expression. </span>
  <span>Kotsuzui</span>
  <span> yelped out in surprise when the once warm milky chakra turned into a cold ice mint feeling.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>With a shaky finger Sakura pointed at the crop field that was being mixed with a person's body parts. "What the fuck Kotsuzui," she whispers.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Disoriented, the man sat up and looked over to where she was pointing. "What's the matter?"</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"He's mixing bone shavings with soil.<em> Kotsuzui we eat those vegetables.</em>"</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at her like she had finally lost it. "Well yeah we eat vegetables…?"</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"We're eating bits of each other then you fucking imbeciles."</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He laughed out once he </span>
  <span>realised</span>
  <span> what had her panicked. "Relax," he slid back down and rummaged for her hand, "there's something in our bones that helps the soil grow good vegetables no matter the season or soil type. In addition, grass grown from the mixed soil was seen to be better feed for the horses and cattle, they grow twice the size of normal animals." Once he finally located her </span>
  <span>hand,</span>
  <span> he dropped it back on his forehead, hoping that she caught his hint and let her chakra do </span>
  <span>its</span>
  <span> thing around his body.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>It took Sakura a solid five minutes of staring at the father in the distance before the science behind their practice dawned onto her. Calcium. Bones contained calcium and by mixing it with the soil they created grade A material for produce growth.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She let out a laugh that bordered on a bit of hysteria. This clan is incredible. Sakura let her diagnostic chakra run its course through Kotsuzui while marvelling at the ingenuity of such a discovery that the Kaguya clan didn't fully understand.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>::</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Most days are filled with Sakura's calming knowledge that she is indestructible thanks to her byakugou seal and that she can level mountains with the chakra in her pinky finger. Some days she is faced with the fragile morality of humankind that it surprises her, something so mundane that she knew but never registered it until she had to in the heat of the moment. Her teammates were mammoths in her eyes, her master an even bigger giant. She struggled balancing her worth as a healer and as a shinobi. But that never changed that she, Sakura Haruno, was indestructible.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Others? Not so much.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Jiku</span>
  <span>, the girl she had rescued from the abduction, is brought into her house in a flurry of red blood, pale white skin and the </span>
  <span>sickly-sweet</span>
  <span> smell of an infection. </span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"What happened?"</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"Her wound never healed up properly and I can't break the fever." The girl on the table smells like vinegar, one of the common practices used to break a fever. Her breathing was </span>
  <span>labored</span>
  <span> and Sakura could detect the sounds of a budding lung infection that was more likely than not caught as a result of a weakened immune system. The original infection was located along her left arm, a long slit down the inside of her arm, from the inside of her elbow just above the veins that could be seen around the wrist. The wound oozed with puss and brown sluggish blood. She could see bone pieces jutting against the delicate barrier of her skin, the wrong movement will cut through an artery if she's not careful. Sakura is surprised at the lack of internal bleeding but knows that blessings come in all forms. </span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She ushers Hone to get her a heated basin of water. Moving the father to the far end of the room, Sakura pulls off the top layer of her dress so that she is left in something short sleeved and puts on an apron that she had hidden away as a makeshift white coat. Her perfect chakra control heats her hands and arms up without burning her as she attempts an emergency sanitation procedure before she could go anywhere near the wound. There's a liberal amount of lint stuck to the wound and while in usual cases she would attempt to clean the cut up and then start the healing process, antibiotics had yet to be created. If she remembers correctly, they were discovered during Tsunade's birth year and weren't distributed until her later teenage years. </span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm going to have to amputate her arm to stop the spread of infection," she informed the father, tone clipped at the idea of disabling a child so young.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded helplessly and Sakura knew he didn't understand what she meant. "I'm going to have to cut her arm off," she clarified.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The reaction was instantaneous as his face paled at the thought. "Wait," he stepped forward and Sakura could only hope that she wouldn't have to proceed with her plans of knocking him out, "can you not heal her?"</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"The damage is too much, I can't heal the wound but this," she pointed at the yellow ooze, "it's going to kill her in a matter of days if it's not cut off." It wasn't a fully accurate explanation of what was going on, but for those who weren't well versed in the basics of modern medical terminology, it was the safest course of action.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He backed back into the corner reluctantly and Sakura knew that it was only Kaguya's presence inside of her that saved her from a tormented father's slew of abuse. Not only that but he probably didn't believe much in her ability as a healer, only in the wrath of his goddess should he take his anger out on Sakura. She didn't think any less of him, too used to seeing people at their lowest. And if that wasn't enough, team seven's baggage could weigh down an army, and Sakura had learned to carry it like she didn't have her own demons shackling her to the ground.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Hone appeared seconds later in the house, basin in her hand and curses tumbling out of her mouth as she shooed away the curious bystanders. Sakura had finished telling the fever-crazed girl what they were going to do to her before folding a piece of clean cloth to a desirable length and coaxing it into the girl's mouth. Sakura numbed as many nerves as she could get away with before creating two shadow clones of herself, one held the </span>
  <span>girl's</span>
  <span> legs down and the other held down her left side. Sakura beckoned to Hone and instructed her to hold down the shoulder.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm going to need your consent for this operation." It was too late to ask and whether or not he actually wanted, Sakura was still planning on going ahead with the amputation. She dipped her hand into the water and brought it forth as it stuck to her skin like a glove. </span>
  <span>Next,</span>
  <span> she sharped it enough to cut paper, then enough to cut through skin, and then enough to cut through muscle and bone. The chakra hummed at the speed of the water particles moving in tandem to create a sharp blade.</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"W-will she live?"</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"Of course."</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>"Then please save her."</span>
  
</p><p> <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl's trashing and screams didn't affect her as she sliced through skin and bones with a chakra scalpel that engulfed the entirety of her hand, but it did quiet down the rabbit goddess to an acceptable degree.</span>
  
</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>anyone have any suggestions for scenes theyd like to see appear in this story?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I cannot stress enough how much your feedback means to me. I’ve been reading everyone’s comments on what I could improve and what confused them and I'm trying my best to rectify it. On another note, any scenes you’d like to see pop up in this story? Could be with the kaguya, founders, or any character/clan that existed during the warring states period.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Kotsuzui was growing on her, like a swamp parasite might on a human brain. He reminded her a lot of Shikamaru, a down to earth man who in just about every situation liked taking the easy way out if he could, but unlike Shikamru he had a petty streak that ran a mile long.</p><p>“Are you still giving her the silent treatment?”</p><p>Kotsuzui turned to the left and rolled away from her. He mumbled something into the ground that her strained ears couldn’t hear.</p><p>“What was that?”</p><p>“Yes,” he lifted his head a little to hiss at Sakura. </p><p>“Grow up you actual baby. She’s right after all. If the both of us went down to the village there’s a 87% chance we’d get into a fight with someone. But with me and Hone, the chance of that happened is 39%,” she tried to reason with him. There was only so much of a moping Kotsuzui she could take and she was already reaching her limit on good bedside manners for the day.</p><p>“Those are still some terrible odds.” He argued weakly. In his visible annoyance at loosing this battle, he began stabbing his finger into the soft soil beneath them. </p><p>“Hone knows what she’s doing. Older siblings are more responsible you know, trust her a little.” Her relaxed posture told him that she would indulge him for only a little while longer before her over active temper hit. He pretended to not be focused on watching her singe the tops of the grass around them with her chakra.</p><p><br/>But Kotsuzui paused in his quest to overturn every part of the grass around them. “Are you…?” This time he did turn to his side fully and looked at her in a suspicious manner, eyes squinting and mouth downcast.</p><p>“Am I what?” She played the part well. Sakura looked convincingly confused but Kotsuzui wondered if she was trying to rebuff the question. She was now searing off the tops of the grass blades in clean swiped of her palm. The familiar smell if recently cut grass filled his nose.</p><p>“Were you the eldest in your family?” He questioned her carefully, studying her facial expressions from his position on the ground. She was sitting up as usual, eyes scanning the area around them even though they were a mere twenty steps away from the village. She was always so vigilant and brash, the oddest mixture of his father’s and sister’s personalities.</p><p>“I was an only child for most of my llife” She paused, face pinched as if she was trying to control her emotions. “I was two years into an active war when the letter finally reached me without getting intercepted. My parents wrote to me and told me that I was going to be a big sister. Felt nice to know that I’d get to baby a child that was mine for once.” She left it at that, her voice having picked up speed as she recalled a memory she evidently loved only to cut herself before she could speak anymore. She was such an enigma, she spoke like a retired mercenary yet inhabited the body of a child that had yet to reach woman hood. She baffled him to no end. Kotsuzui itched to ask her more questions. ‘How old are you? Did the war end? Did you get to see the baby?’ But for all of his rash behavior he still knew when it was time to step back and be respectful.</p><p>“Kids are menaces,” Kotsuzui complained.</p><p>“Yeah...they can really suck,” she agreed in a quite voice.</p><p>::</p><p>At the bottom of the mountain that the Kaguya clan had taken residence on, stood Hone and Sakura, both decked in less clothing that was needed to be worn above, where the air was thinner and crisp. In order to shop at the village for certain supplies the Kaguya would have to travel to different locations each time, disguising themselves well. Hone’s claws were hidden inside thick mitten gloves and her facial tattoos were changed around to look more like the southern clan styles by adding paint over them to elongate and adjust the shapes. It was a clever move, this meant that if they came across a proficient genjutsu user they wouldn’t be spotted. Lastly she made sure to wrap her pale white hair into a bun and cover it with a housewife’s headscarf. With her most noticeable features disguised Hone tuned to Sakura and pointed at her horns.</p><p>“What will you do with those?” She looked worried as she presumably attempted to come up with a way to have them hidden.</p><p>Sakura waved her concern off. “Told you I already had an idea” Fine tuning her chakra in her right hand into a bright turquoise color, Sakura produced a chakra scalpel and brought it to her face. She closed her eyes in time to see Hone’s face break out in panic as she tried to stop the younger girl. Sakura easily cut through the bone like it was a block of butter. She did not wince, having started numbing her forehead and skull while they were still up on the mountain. The horn fell to the ground with a morbid 'thunk' sound. Sakura sliced just as easily through the second one. When she opened her eyes Hone was staring at her with a sickly looking complexion. Blood trickled from the open blood vessels in the base of each horn and Hone averted her gaze.</p><p>“It doesn’t hurt,” Sakura tried to reassure her. “It’ll grow back anyways” she tagged that last bit on with a reassuring smile on her face.</p><p>Hone kept her eyes glued to the thick belt on Sakura’s winter dress as she talked to her. “How can it regrow? You’ve cut it off at the base.” She heard the woman swallow hard at the end of her sentence. For a clan with barbaric practices she seemed too I’ll at the side did blood and broken bones. In the moment Sakura could not think up of a reason why that was so.</p><p>“These horns work more like nails or hair than bone” she recalled the experiments she had carried out on herself in the last few months. “It’ll grown as I age.”</p><p>Bringing up her hands she scrubbed the blood off her face with her sleeve and closed up the tissue with some beeswax from her pouch before it could catch an infection. She lit her hands up again and make sure to check up on the nerve endings and blood vessels, once satisfied her hands stopped glowing a turquoise color. Sakura reached into her pouch at her hip and brought out a long thick ribbon that the Kaguya used to keep their hair up. It was of a fine and rich material, soft to the touch compared to a lot of the clothes that the people in the clan wore.</p><p>“Where did your clan buy this fabric?” Sakura motioned to Hone with her head to begin walking, she hoped that the woman’s shock would wear away fast. She proceeded to tie the material around her forehead as her short legs carried her towards Hone. It covered it from the hairline right down to the tips of her eyebrows, surprising her with its length and width.</p><p>Hone walked in front of her as she began to talk. “After our ancestors left the peaceful practice of Ninshu, they became mercenaries in their search for a new and sustainable life. In the end it did not last long. Seeing no benefit from mindless killing except for a feeble bit of monetary gain, they left that too. There came a period in my clans timeline where they started to dabble in craftsmanship. This creative period brought us fortune in the village we occupied. Merchants began to bring their traffic into this previously forgettable village. The hair band you hold is one made four generations ago. Silk worms of the Yama region were brought into the village and domesticated. From hence forth it was the work of gifted fingers that pulled the threads off heated cocoons. Children dyed their fingers and hair in the process of immigrating their hard-working mothers. The bitter scent of boiled silk worms is a curious thing to behold at first. After some time it became the signature smell of a blooming village that was ready to step into a new era.” Hone store telling abilities were magnificent in Sakura’s eyes. </p><p>Sakura pulled it up a little higher so it would stop sliding over her eyes every time she took a step forward. “But something happened right?”</p><p>“Yes,” the women’s voice took on a colder tone as she recalled painful memories, “someone placed bounties on our heads. What aided this offer was our well-known declining health. We are a sickly clan; outsiders were often times scared to catch the disease that we were plagued with. It did not take long for people from all over the great continents to hunt us. Some did it in the name of eradicating the cursed illness that they felt threatened by. Others did it for the money.”</p><p>“Wait,” Sakura cut her off, her words came out choppy as she jumped over a root that was too high for her child body to simply over step. “So, there are bounties handed out for every clan member’s head that’s brought forward?”</p><p>“Yes,” replied Hone is a solemn tone. “We are unaware of the identity of the one behind the order” She walked steadily Sakura noticed, the bottom material of her layered dress kissed the top of her ankles, the perfect length of modest traditional clothing that didn’t drag and get sullied by the water-logged earth they had trodden upon. “In the past, men have left the village under disguise to find the culprit but nothing was ever uncovered, some even went missing during these missions. When great grandfather took the reins he knew that we could no longer afford any more losses, lest the last of our clan perishes. He brought about great change to our clan.”</p><p>Sakura ran up a few steps, wincing at the intense squelching noise of her sandals that she felt interrupted the somber mood of their intimate conversation. Once she was at Hone’s side instead of behind her Sakura looked up at the older woman’s face, she hoped her presence up close to her would be understood as a silent sign of support. “What type of changes?”</p><p><br/>Her pace never faltered as she walked in between trees that the Kaguya had been careful to not wear out a path this past year, they couldn’t afford to have anyone in the neighboring villages suspect that they were camping in the area. “We abandoned many of our practices and cultures and took up a nomadic lifestyle. There are three main roles in the clan, each one must be filled by two people. These positions include; healer, chieftain, scribe. They stand as the foundation of our clan’s dynamic” She held three fingers in the air as she continued. “The importance of a healer’s and a leader’s job may be obvious while the scribes may not be, but his job still remains central to keeping our structure upright. A scribe’s job involves getting to know every clan member and placing them into the duties of the clan that would best suit them. This way we operate as a unit instead of different families working by themselves under a single leader. The scribe ensures that they understand every person’s weaknesses and strengths, their personalities and their physical capabilities. He picks who is to become a hunter, a tailor, a farmer and so on.” They trekked across fallen tree trunks and walked by forest critters that brought the greenery around them to life with their noise. The sound of a river rushing downstream can be heard when the women strained their ears hard enough.</p><p>Sakura suddenly snapped out of the rhythmic lull she had fallen into from the calming walk with Hone and her soothing story teller’s voice. “Wait, about the roles. Why two people each?”</p><p>Hone didn’t look at her when she answered. “Spares.” Sakura watched her lick her dry chapped lips. “At least one member is successfully abducted every six months, no matter where we are hiding at that time.” Hone rubbed some warmth into her hands by blowing into them, the mittens didn’t seem to keep the frost from reaching her skin. She cracked her knuckles one by one as she paused in her explanation. “You’ve only been with us for a few months, but we’re overdue an abduction already.” There were no signs of sarcasm or spite in her voice, only solemn acceptance.</p><p>::</p><p>
  <em>Pain is all she knows. It’s the type that comes from being reborn over and over again, the type that drives her delirious the more she is subjected to it and forces her chakra to lash out and stop whatever this is. Except that it’s futile when all five of her senses are robbed yet she still feels her skin splitting up before healing at an accelerated pace, she feels her bones come in contact with molten hot fire before it melts away and comes back with a stronger vengeance. She cannot see anything but knows that her body is spinning rapidly in no particular order. Her physical body knows only chaos as it continues to sail in what she might’ve guessed to be air if she was actually able to form thoughts. There is no sound around her yet she is sure that she’s screaming her throat raw. She feels Kaguya screaming and clawing at her own face, but that is more of a suspicion than something she is sure off. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Pain boils her bones to a liquid as she ages at an accelerated rate before dying and being reborn. The process continues to torment her and she feels her mind shatter as she fights against the pain. She feels the weight behind her forehead subside the more chakra is pulled out to keep her body repairing itself. This goes on until she blearily realizes that if she doesn’t stop this somehow the chakra will run out, and when it goes the byakugou seal will be rendered useless and she will die. Even with this muddled revelation Sakura cannot find the strength in herself to fight back harder. The pain is unlike anything she has ever felt and it tears at the edges of her fraying sanity.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The sensation of Kaguya clawing at her insides as though she is a cluster of insects intensifies. She feels the goddess gaining more power over her body with every death she undergoes. She arrives to force herself to bite down on her tongue, to instigate a different and more familiar type of pain so that it may clear her mind just a little. But her motor skills are that of a new born baby, her actions are sluggish and when she bites down instead if screaming out loud, she is met with a mouth full of tongue that she feels aging in size and teeth that fall out to let new ones grow in, some she spits out while she’s screaming and others she swallows and it goes on. She is twelve, eighteen, twenty-five, fourth seven, seventy-three. The new pain doesn’t help but it does allow her to finally taste something. Her tears are salty and leave her throat feeling parched. Sakura focuses on these emotions instead and tries to think.</em>
</p><p>Then she feels…water? There is something shaking her awake and, in her confusion, and this state that lacked the pain from earlier, Sakura’s legs shoot out and her thighs squeeze at the body in front of her. She rolls to the side, her delicate finger wrapped around as much of the intruders neck as they could, she pushes roughly against the enemy's jugular and tries to see their face through her swimming vision.</p><p>‘<strong><em>How could you do this to me</em></strong>.’</p><p>“Prin...cess-.” ‘<em>Fuck</em>’. That was definitely Hone’s voice. Sakura immediately lets go of the woman’s neck and rises up to lift her body weight from the form bellow. Hone coughs and rubs at her neck gingerly. Sakura stands over the lady in confusion as she tries to discern her past memories from the present day. One of Sakura’s hands grips onto a fistful of her hair and the other keeps smoothing down the fabric of her dress over and over in a way to comfort her. ‘<em>Shock</em>’ she tells herself, ‘<em>I am feeling shock and guilt. My self-worth had lowered. I am comforting myself. I am in control and I am comforting myself'</em></p><p>
  <em>‘<strong>Please! My children! I can’t let them be hurt!</strong>’</em>
</p><p>“Are you alright?” There is so much concern in Hone’s eyes for her wellbeing that Sakura lets out an impulsive bark of self-depreciating laughter at how utterly stupid this woman was to put a stranger’s wellbeing over her own. Sakura had the power in her fingers to deform landscapes, a structure made of skin and bones was nothing in comparison.</p><p>‘<strong><em>Spare them Kahori!’</em></strong></p><p>She was swaying dangerously from where she stood and Hone must have noticed because she wasted no time and got to her feet. She gently pried off the hand tangled in her pink tresses and took her arm to lead her back to her futon. She was whispering sweet nothings into her ears as she moved the girls dress around to help her sit comfortably. The words went into one ear and through out the other as Sakura continued to shake in her place on the floor. Sakura barely noticed Hone standing up and leaving the room until suddenly her body shuddered and she began to cry. She hadn’t broke down like this since the second year of war after Shikamaru looked her in the eyes and told her the truth, “<em>until the last shinobi is dead, this war’s gonna continue”.</em> It was devastating to hear especially when she was repeatedly hearing encouraging words from those around her who were looking forward to the imminent defeat of Kaguya that was expected any day now. Everyone wanted to return back to their homes. It was  hard picking herself up in the following weeks and growing a strong shell as she resigned herself to be the last medic standing. She remembers making a home for herself in between beds on the ground made of overgrown weeds and thankful glances thrown her way after people managed to walk away from the make shift operating table alive. She remembers asking her parents through a letter to send over all of her savings from through out the years so that she could use it to buy medical supplies, cots and sanitization products.</p><p>Sakura rubs angrily at her tears, ashamed that she would be reduced to such a hysterical mess after years of running her voice hoarse from homemade cigarettes shared with nurses and orders bellowed out. She is a hardened woman, no matter what body she has currently taken on. And she knows the science behind her breakdown, the changes this body is undergoing and the hormones that are making her more emotional than usual, but it doesn’t stop the years spent destroying and hating her femininity and the negative connotation emotions brought in her line of work. That memory, disguised as a nightmare, she had experienced was one she had been sure was locked away firmly behand chakra webs that used to stand as tall as her talking psyche. Well she had been aware that Kaguya's voice had been eating away at her sanity so she really should have expected this. Luckily for her, the goddess was silent right now, all that could be heard coming from her was the occasional sniffle.</p><p>Gingerly she got up, taking care to pull up her dress and not trip over any material that caught under her foot. Her movements were stunted and slow but at least she was moving. Even with the thoughts that weighed her down and the limbs that failed to move in a orderly fashion, she managed to make her way to a door who’s wood was so eaten way at that a teen her age would be able to knock it off its hinges. As an after thought she threw a glance at the door’s hinges as her right hand grabbed onto the worn out tweed rope that served as a door handle and pulled it. ‘<em>Thing is hanging on half a hinge piece’</em> she scoffed. She was angry and feeling extremely petty. Everything pissed her off, from the door that required to be picked up an inch from the ground and pushed to be opened to the stifling smell of opium smoke that came from the room in front of her. She wrinkled her sensitive nose and walked down rickety stairs. The cramped building looked like it wouldn’t survive another decade. Not with how these wooden stairs creaked and bent under her light weight.</p><p>On the last narrow step Sakura squinted in the poorly lit building and looked around for Hone who was no where to be seen downstairs. There were two rooms at the left side of this make makeshift reception area, the boy that admitted them the night prior was at the entrance (presumably guarding it with the way she caught his side profile eyeing up the passerby) and another few rooms were built to her right. She walked across rotting wood that smelt of age old sake and dry rot. Her eyes narrowed further the closer she walked to the open door way and it’s little guard. She passed right by him, ignoring the scrutinizing look he gave her. She had forgotten how staring was not a crime in smaller villages. Back in Konoha, even the likes of Neji would pick a fight with foreigners who stared open at him.</p><p>‘<em>Huh. Konoha</em>.’ She wondered if she would have a breakdown any time soon. So far there were no signs of a mourning period or a psychotic break threatening to come up. She wondered about the ptsd sustained from the war, where was the trauma in full force? Her body might have been that of a twelve year old but her mind was that of a seasoned shinobi. ‘<em>Am i still in shock? No</em>,’ she visibly shook her head as she persisted in her walk in this catatonic state she was finding herself in. <em>‘I’m still feeling anger and I’ve laughed a handful of times. Am I subconsciously suppressing some of my responses?</em>’ She continued to tinker with ideas, scaling her mind and picking around for her psyche.</p><p>‘<strong>Fuck off.’</strong></p><p>She relaxed. It lay there dormant, a tangible giant figure of a twelve year old Sakura sleeping on the ground. a guardian of the childhood trauma that she never got around to resolving. Not when wars grasp had snatched her sixteen years old self-</p><p>Sakura stumbled and looked up and around, dizzy with the realization of what she had just discovered. It was piping hot and humid as the midday sun continued to shine it’s rays on the travelers and natives alike. She removed herself from the throng of people around her and made her way to a shaded area between the closest two houses. She slid out of the masses and clutched at the wall as her back connected to the cold stone. She stayed there some while, content to hide in the shade as she puzzled through the mechanics of her mind. Her psyche was ginormous, bigger than it had ever been. As she recalled the war the doors she guarded had rattled violently in response to the recollection. She pulled at her hair in frustration, her actions caused the silk hair band to further slide over her hairline, revealing the marrow and bone like structure of where her horns had previously been growing out of. All her trauma had been stored and locked away and a bigger guard to her piling issues was stationed there now. No wonder she had managed to smile and act carefree around the Kaguya clan when the last seven years were spent slowly becoming numb to any sort of news that rolled in from the battlefield and into her tent.</p><p>“Shit fuck,” she whispered. She had to start devising a therapeutic course for herself. Either she faced her trauma soon and with a plan to tackle it or she would trigger it in the most inopportune moment in the future and be hindered by it. The mind was a discipline of science that hadn’t been given enough study and scrutiny in her opinion. Back when she was studying under Tsunade she had hungrily devoured any books she found pertaining the topic. But what she had come into her reach was not nearly enough to satiate the questions she had. So many possibilities, unknown variable and questions she had that needed answering. In her currently predicament, she still didn’t know if she could carry out her research from before. She had obligations now and while those obligation didn’t include healing members of a united army and teaching freshly disabled shinobi how to create chakra that healed and not hurt, they were still numerous and were important for her survival in this age. Her research could wait but her trauma had to be resolved one way or another.</p><p>Counting to five she pushed herself from the wall at three and joined the people that brought to life this market place. This time she caught onto the workings of her psyche as she woke up from her slumber to latch onto her anxious thoughts and store them behind one of the numerous doors she guarded. Sakura brought down her hair band to cover most of her forehead with a sigh. Opening those doors was going to unleash seven types of hells onto herself if any of what the sun’s shinobi and their after life beliefs were to be true. </p><p>Sakura pinched her arm lightly and parked her troubles into the darker corners of her mind. There were things that needed her attention at this moment yet she was too busy stewing away at her past. She would fix her problems, one at a time. Sakura deftly sidestepped an older woman who had paused in her slow staggering walk and persevered in her search for Hone. She made a path for herself between loud children and their sticky hands, women carrying there shopping with a hip trusted to the side for the balance and the full bellied laughter of men who were keen on getting what they haggled for. The land felt alien to her and she didn’t let a single piece of fabric or stray hair touch her, not when her head was filled with her psyche’s anxious chatter of ‘foreign danger, foreign danger.’ It was nothing like Konoha, nothing like the poorest areas of her country. On a first glance it could’ve fooled her, but the longer she walked the more out of place she felt. These people had a different accent to anything she had heard in all of Fire, they swallowed letters and lengthened their vowels. Small differences was what set them apart from her homeland. It was in the way they stuck to their superstition like fact, it was in the way a man struck his wife in broad daylight and the only reaction from the people around was a nod of agreement. The differences solidified themselves among age old roles and expectations that had long been abandoned two hundred years in the future, a time where the village stood above else and a single misworded correspondence had the power to start a world wide war. ‘<em>These were different times</em>,’ she tried to reason with herself, <em>‘there is no enemy to unity them. There is family and there is foreigner and that is their life</em>.’</p><p>Sakura sped through the market place and suppressed the urge to visibly groan when she felt Kaguya stir in her sleep. She had the self-control right now to not have a public melt down but she didn’t want to be socializing with locals with a the killer migraine that the actual demon inside of her will no surely ignite once she had fully awaken. Sakura kept walking, making sure to visually scan any food stall she passed. So far there was no sign of Hone, only a few peering men that looked to be wanting to tempt her wrath. She was aching for a good pummeling but had to talk herself out of it. Not everyone was a maneuvering concessioner like her asshole of a sensei or had convenient regenerative abilities like Naruto, she had been and continued to be under the strict command of being forbidden to throw hands at any man or woman that is not either a Konoha missing nin, Lee, Gai or a member of team seven. This was a result of an altercation between herself and two iwa nin that had ended in the first recorded case of the hanahaki disease and a stapler imbedded into her forehead. </p><p>
  <em>“Sakura why is Onoki accusing me of hiding your true identity as my bastard child?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No please listen to me they slighted you so I-“</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“So you decided to use some new jutsu on iwa nin in the middle of a war? Are you ok?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It was a theory I had for a while and it’s not like he died when I did try it out- shishou please put the stapler down”.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Let me understand. You decided to use a bastardised version of wood release on an iwa nin. Sakura I'm about to cave your stupid head in.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It’s just a few flowers inside if him please don’t kill me.”</em>
</p><p>This was what led to the latest edition (“the seventy fourth law!” she liked to boast whenever she was wasted off kiri alcohol) to the second Hokage's book of <em>Civil Konohian and Inter-Country Law</em> that had been passed during year two of the war. Those were good times. It had been a chore and a half, taking out that staple and its machine but it felt nice to be in the epicenter of the greatest alliance ever forged where for once in history everyone was equal in both standing and death. And now it was gone. She was stranded somewhere, whether it be another dimension or another period in her own timeline she could not say. She needed this information quick. Now, how to best approach these locals-</p><p>There was a split second of clarity as her mind reeled at the presence behind her and she suppressed a shiver. Her grip on the kunai hidden in her sleeve, tied to her arm, relaxed. Hone’s hand on her shoulder pressed into it in a comforting manner, thumb stroking her covered skin. She had truly grown lax in her awareness of her surrounding if she had let Hone sneak up on her like that. She had been lucky that it wasn't someone with ill intent that had approached her like that, a kunai to the spine while your hand are held behind your back was not easy to get away from. Unease clawed at her chest and she felt those doors behind her psyche rattle a little. She had to calm herself down right now</p><p>“Sakura how are you feeling now?” Hone walked to her left, her hand still pressed lightly on her shoulder in such a motherly fashion that Sakura found herself not willing to shove her off, even if she still a little shaken.</p><p>“I’ve had better days,” she grumbles out, trying to sound more annoyed than panicked. Her mind was now changing to another mantra; ‘<em>enemy territory, enemy territory</em>.’</p><p>She could sense the older lady’s reluctance at dropping the topic of her wellbeing so Sakura had to move the conversation along. “How did you find me anyways? I’ve been looking for you for a while now.” Sweat dampened the area above her lip and under her hair band. The sun had reached it’s peak now as the air became stifling. </p><p>“I sensed you out,” confusion was evident in her voice and Sakura was left trying to understand exactly what she meant.</p><p>“How? My chakra reserve is not massive enough for you to be able to sense it out?” Was she slipping? Her natural reserves have always been small, The Byakugou seal was designed specifically to store and hide the chakra behind her massive forehead. </p><p>“Oh no, I was referring to the Mother’s presence,” she explained patiently. Hone expertly steered them away from an infant throwing a tantrum on the worn-out path. “I think it was five months ago that all of us came to feel her bloom into existence at full force. That was when we knee for certain that she was with us. It was a powerful presence compared to the mere echo we feel of her at the shinju tree’s resting place.”</p><p>“You can still feel her there? That was a few millenniums ago.”</p><p>Hone noticed Sakura staring at her with scrunched eyebrows. Hone released her hold on her young girls shoulders and swiped at her brows in a way to smooth the wrinkle lines she was going to develop at this rate. “It is a mere tingle on the skin compared to the force of a water fall within you, but it solidified our deities existence for centuries. I do not know how it is possible that we have felt her presence for so long but then again I do not claim to know much.”</p><p>Sakura made sure to keep her body language as calm as she could while she internally panicked. Fucking Kaguya better not call on them for the unsealing. She had grown attached to this tragic clan and she was not looking forward to cutting them down if they acted up.</p><p>Hone perked up suddenly as she remembering something that had nearly slipped her mind. "You had asked about the well fare of the Uchiha and Senju had you not?” At Sakura’s nod she continued excitedly, “a merchant that crossed Yama bay down to the east let me know that their feud is picking up after a two-month stalemate. It seems that an heir of the Uchiha was killed and the suspect is a Senju.”</p><p>Sakura nodded slowly. Well, that was something, at least the Senju and Uchiha existed in this timeline or dimension. She wondered if the rest of the founding clans existed. How far in the edo period was she? </p><p>“You wouldn’t know the names of any of the heirs, would you?” she directed the conversation. How close were they to the founding? Did Hashirama and Madara even exist yet?</p><p>“I couldn't tell you. The merchant was from Uzushio and spent most of the time cursing the Uchiha ancestry by spitting on the ground every two sentences,” she recalled.</p><p>“Ah.” ‘<em>Naruto’s homeland</em>,’ she thought darkly. The Uzumaki clan were an unknown variable that she had nearly forgotten to incorporate into her plans. The death God’s servants. The masters of seals. Very little of their existence was known to genin Sakura and the chunin section of the library had little knowledge of actual significance on them. Mizu’s legends painted them as demonic worshipers whose red hair came from the soaking of blood. Kumo’s stories hailed their strange chakric kekkai genkai as godlike powers. History was always being written by the winners and Sakura could only stand there and struggle to fit this finicky fragment into her thousand-piece puzzle</p><p>“Come, I found a place for us to breakfast. Afterwards the wares should be packed and ready to be taken.” Hone steered her under the cool shade of a propped up cloth and into a food booth. It was a family-owned business judging by the couple who worked seamlessly together to prepare their meal all while side stepping two kids beneath them who kept trying to cook with them. A bowl of ramen was slid under her nose and Sakura stared at the comfort food (‘<em>danger territory, foreign enemy’</em> her mind continued to chant) that she had not tasted in a few years. She accepted the reusable wooden chopsticks handed to her by one of the wide eyed, blonde haired children and all she could hear was the sound of the doors in her mind rattling.</p><p>::</p><p>She was not going to step into another populated area that didn’t solely consist of Kaguya clan members for a very long time. Next time she wanted willow bark she would throw Kotsuzui off the mountain side and get him to bring her the goods. </p><p>The two women walked up the mountain with practiced ease, Hone had her experience and Sakura relied on her perfect chakra control and earth affinity to glue her in place. The clan nestled above a thick fog cloud that prevented anyone visiting the woods close to the base of the mountain from looking up and spying their living quarters. It was a jutsu that had originated from Mizu and Sakura wondered how the hell someone from this clan managed to obtain a jutsu from a country that produced the most cut throat shinobi she’s had the pleasure (or displeasure?) of meeting.</p><p>Passing through the fog cloud was always the worst. It was dense and left anyone who walked through it soaked to the bone if they didn’t move fast enough. With her enhanced strength she could pull her luggage and body out of here quickly but Hone couldn’t do the same. Sakura stayed back with her and made sure Hone could see the exaggerated frown on her face. If only that prideful woman would let her take their luggage, they would be able to get out of here in ten seconds flat.</p><p>“Sakura I will purposefully lie done and not move an inch if you take anything off me,” Hone threatened all while not looking her way. What dirty, dirty tactics these clan members liked to use against her.</p><p>“If you could move a lil' faster I wouldn’t be trying to swipe your stuff,” she complained, hating the way her voice became nasally and whiny. </p><p>They trudged further uphill in silence, occasionally lending their arm to the other when the climb became too steep. Leaving the cloud behind them should have excited her but having her clothes stick to her like a second skin was frustrating. The squelching noise her sandals made and the sound of the wet fabric of her dress smacking against her legs over and over drove her temper wild. It didn’t help that the closer they got to the top, the thinner the air became. She had gotten used to it after a month of living up there through plenty of meditation and manipulation of medical chakra in lungs. But after a day and night in the village she was left thorn at what she missed more. Well at least this explained her panicking state earlier. The increase in oxygen below must have affected her and made her dizzy enough to act very emotional. It was most definitely not because of the decades worth of trauma in her head.</p><p>The last few steps calm her down a little bit. She was itching to shrug off this excess weight and her get herself used to this air pressure with a good and long meditation session. She walked up and over the side of the mountain cliff, crouched a little and walked up vertically, straining her developing muscles. She already had a scathing look on her face as she anticipated Kotsuzui’s dumb face to pop into her personal space any second.</p><p>Except… he didn’t. Behind her, Hone dropped to her knees and choked out a sob. There is only silence in this home hidden in the mountain tops.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A/N uchiha clan will be making an appearance next chapter so pls stay patient with me.</p><p>Please do leave a review as it motivates me to turn out chapters more often x</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>please leave a review so i know if i should continue or not x</p></blockquote></div></div>
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